Abstinence teaching=insanity

According to a report by the Center for Disease Control, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases rose during the Bush years, a direct consequence of their policy of ‘abstinence teaching’. Anyone who has seriously studied the issue of teen sex knows abstinence is about as effective as cold showers. And yet, I’m sure that as we speak, the religious right thinks the increase is actually proof MORE abstinance teaching is needed. This is the definition of insanity; doing the same thing and expecting different results.

What is sad about all this are the adults who were in charge of protecting American teens have utterly failed to do so. They were so busy trying to push their religious agenda that they perpetually refused to accept the reality of the situation: if you want to lower pregnancy and STI rates, you need to teach kids about sex. This is the same group of people who want to make abortions illegal. The irony here is if they simply gave young people better information on protection rather than rely on Biblical literalism, there would be fewer teen pregnancies, and therefore fewer abortions. It really is that simple.

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Comments (5)

Hansen

It’s all about fear and punishment. They think it’s the only way to prevent (what they consider) immoral behavior. Making abortion illegal is a perfect example. I don’t buy for one minute that they care about the unborn babies. They want pregnancy to be a punishment for having sex. Why else would they be against both abortion and contraceptives?

I’m 15 years old and I can assure you that the teachings they give us about sex is a bunch of bull shit. Whenever I went to my first sex ed class, all they did was tell us not to have sex before informing us what it even was. As years went by they would tell us not to do it, but if we do, make sure to use a condom. I mean what the hell? That’s like telling a child not to hit other children, but if they do they should aim for a place a bruise won’t show. I think it’s hard for them to teach us abstinence because it wasn’t such a problem when they were my age. But is it really that hard to teach the right way? Teenagers have raging hormones. We can’t help it. How is something that we can’t control be a sin?